Re: Lojbanized German place names

[Nick NICHOLAS <nsn@vis.mu.oz.au>]

Hu'tegh! nuq ja' ucleaar jay'?

=Could you explain the argument that roundedness does not count?
=Couldn't the Lojban i/u & e/o distinction be one of roundedness
=rather than backness?

Oh, I dunno, And... I have these horror visions of Lojbanists producing
back unrounded vowels (which sound hideous enough in British and American
English --- we Ozzies have the sense to pronounce /u/ in cup as a short version
of /a/ in carp --- both as low centrals, rather than unrounded back vowels,
mid-open and open resp. One more reason why this is God's own country!

zo'osai)

=More generally, I wd favour a Lojbanization of names that respects
=*spelling* over pronunciation. Or at least spelling shd be given
=equal weight.

A view the linguistic orthodoxy would scoff at, a view that goes against
our notions of kulnu nutli and phonetic transcription... but if I'm confronted
with forms like xamburk., I'd tend to agree with And on this one... Not that
I can see it happening --- it's much more difficult to decide on a consistent
compromise between pronunciation and spelling, than to just go with the
pronunciation.

--
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Nick Nicholas. Linguistics, University of Melbourne.   nsn@krang.vis.mu.oz.au
        nsn@mundil.cs.mu.oz.au      nick_nicholas@muwayf.unimelb.edu.au
            AND MOVING SOON TO: nnich@speech.language.unimelb.edu.au